Distilling apparatus



Nov. 1, 1932. J. McDoUGALl.

DSTILLING APPARATUS Filed Apil l2, 1929 M/05/7 (Ol/.s

Patented Nov. 1, y1932 NETE@ .STATES JAMES MGDOU'GALL, OF GLASGOW,SCOTLAND DISTILLING APPARATUS .Application filed April 12, 1929, SerialNo. 354,57?, and in Great Britain April 18, 1928.

My invention relates to improvementsin and connected with distillingapparatus, of -What is known as the Coey type. His app paratus can onlydeal with liquids which Il have a small percentage oi the desiredproduct. In the case of alcoholic wash this per# centage does not comeabove absolute alcohol (8l/4% proof). VBut the wash (heren inafterreferred to as the wash) can be fer- 10 mentated economically up to 8%absolute alcohol 12% prooi, and as the steam required is Vdirectlyproportional to the quantity of `wash distilled, a great saving in.steam would be effected if the apparatus could distill the 15 Wash'ofthe higher strength without dilution and without loss of spirit. Asaving would y also be eilected in fermenting space for wash and `in thetime required i'or distillation.

'Coil'eys distilling apparatus consists esf sentially of two verticalcolumns, therectifier and theanalyzer. Thevrectilier is dividedhorizontally into a number of compartments 'by vperforated sheets withcoils between. These coils are connected together so that Wash enteringthe top coil ,passes down through each coil in turn till it passes outof the bottom coil to the top of the analyzer. There are usually about40 compartments in Y this'column but the number varies slightly.

The analyzer is divided into compartments the same as the rectifier byperforated sheets but has no coils between these, and each perforatedsheet has drop pipes to talethewash to the next lower sheet. l

Wash is passed down the coils in the rectifier from the topmost coil,passes through all the coils in the column and is then ejected -on thetop perforated sheet ofthe column where it meets steam blown into thecolumn `in the lowest compartment. lThe pressure of the steam preventsthe wash falling through the perforations and thus the wash runs alongthe sheet and down the drop tubes to the lower sheet and so on down thewhole column where it passes out at a higher temperature (225 F.) afterhaving been denuded of its alcohol vapour by the ascending steam.

This alcohol vapour passes over from the top of' the analyzer tothebottom compartment of the rectiiier, passes up the column through theperforated sheets and comes into contact with the coils through whichthe descending current ofwash is passing. The spirit vapour heats thiswashv and out of the vapour lrst'water and other products with higherboiling points' than alcohol are condensed until, at a certain pointwhere the wash in the coils is at temperature 4of 130- 125 F., thealcohol itself condenses.

The wash passing down the rectifier inv the coils -gets gradually heatedfrom compartment to compartment until, when leaving the lbottomcompartment, it has been heated towithin a few. degrees of thetemperature of the incoming spirit'vapour and is then run on to kthe'topsheet of the analyzer to meet the upcoming current io steam.

From this it can plainlybe seenthat there is a balance ofheat betweenthe two columns. Any heattalren bythe vapour from the analyzer to therectifier must be taken up by the wash passingthrough the coils in therectifier as only a rvery'small proportion of' vapour leaves the rectierin the form of others `and some non-condensable gases out of theroverhead pipe to a worm.

When 'wash under 5% f absolute alcohol content is distilled, the vapourWhich theoretically should come from the wash has insufiicient heatcontent tov heat its Wash as it passes up the rectifier so some extrasteam is used to make up the deficiency of heat and this is quiteevident from the strength of Vthe vapour. By Ures or Gruenings tablesthe vapour should be 33.5 U. P. (under proof) from wash containing 4%spirit (7% proof) but in practice "Welind it nearerl() U. P. (underproof). At 5% (81/% proof) we find the strength 25 U. P. (under proof)whichis what we find on these tables and shows that there is an exactbalance `between the two columns in the vheatcontent and no extra steamcoming over.

It can thus be seen that if more vapour were sent over to the rectifieras Would'be the case with higher strength of wash, the Wash in the coilscouldnot condense this vapour as it, the wash, isfalready heated uptothe temperature of the incoming vapour which is aboutv180vo F. anditcan not pass up the column as the operator will shut off the steam ifhe sees the temperature rising above the 130-125 point. If he allowed itto rise objectional products would come up to this point and spoil thespirit.

As wash at spirit contains 50 gallons absolute alcohol per 1000 gallons,and as this wash at boiling point gives off vapour of 41% stren h, thevapour from this will be the vapour of 50 gallons alcohol and 72 gallonswater and the temperature of this vapour will be 181 F., and that of theliquor it came from 203 (Ure).

When the strength of the wash is 7% absolute alcohol (12% proof) thevapour will be 50% and 1=1O0 gallons wash will give off vapour from 70gallons alcohol and 70 gallons water, (as against 50 alcohol and 72water in the former case) so an excess of heat units is apparent in thevapour from thesame amount of wash with the higher strength This vapour(50%) will have a temperature of 180, and the liquor from which it cameshas a temperature of 200.6 F. (Ure)` so the same quantity of wash cantake up 3 less heat than the weaker wash.

' From the foregoing it will be seen that f enough heat can not beapplied to the wash in the analyzer to vapourize all the spirit in thewash of 7% strength, the result being thtthsextra spirit runs down theanalyzing Y colummwith thev wash and goes away with the spent liquor.

. It will also be seen from the foregoing fllres that the wash aft-erleaving the rect.

r (where it has done all the condensing),

is not up .to its own boiling point as its f vapour is over 20 lowerthan the wash from which it came.

My invention resides in the provision of means of distilling the wash ofhigher spirit Strength without loss of spirit and with only af verysmall increase in the steam required Aper gallon of wash than is thecase when weaker washes are distilled, less than 2% extra'steam beingrequired against roughly .50% 1f wash is distilled at the usual 81%-proof content. As this 2% extra steam is' vtellen up by condensingwater in coils the heated water may be returned to the boilers as feedwater without loss of heat, all as here@ inafter described withreference to the draw= ing and pointed out in the claims.

f In order that Vmy invention may beV proporly understood and readilycarried into effect, I have hereunto appended one sheet of illustratingmy invention, of which ,f yFigure 1 is an elevation of apparatusillustr'lting my invention.

y Figuref is a plan of Figure l.

C According to my invention, I take the extra ,lheatout of the vapourcoming from the ,analyzer A (which could not be taken up by theincomingwash in the coils L) either before it reaches the rectifier B by meansof coils in an enclose-d vessel, where water would circulate, or by atubular condenser or other meansor, preferably I could have coils Cfitted into the lower part D of the rectifier B, as shown, and connectthese to an inlet water supply pipe E, the water going into the upperportion of coils C and passing down to the lower section of the coils Cleaving the column by the outlet water pipe F. The coils C which I woulduse for the purpose would do anywhere from the spirit outlet pipe G downto the bottom D of the rectifier B, but preferably one or more of thelowest coils, as shown in Figure 1. On stills which have'some extraframes I would disconnect two or more of the frames from the serieswhich make up the wash coils L and circulate water through these, thequantity of water required being easily found by experi ment.Theoretically it would amount to gallons of water at 55 heated to 175for every 1000 gallons of wash of 7% absolute alcohol. (121/4 proof.)

The pipe O connects the analyzer A with a source of steam, not shown.The pipe P conducts the alcohol vapour from the top portion of theanalyzer A to the bottom compartment of the rectifier B.

In addition to the foregoing and as an addition tothe invention, I wouldpass the wash, after leaving the rectifier B where it has been heated ashigh as possible by the spirit vapour, through the pipe J into a heaterI where I would heat it up to at least its boiling point before passingit through the pipe H on to the analyzer A so that less steam would berequired to vapourize the alcohol vapour.

This heater takes the form of a pipe coil I contained in a chamber Mthrough which the heating medium passes. In this case the heating mediumis the spent liquor coming from the analyzer A through the pipe K andpassing it through the chamber M when it would heat the ingoing washcontained in the coilsI and then pass out by the pipe N.

It is to be understood that other forms of heater may be employedwithout deviating from the principle of my invention.

I claim.

1. In a distilling apparatus of the Coffey v type for alcoholic wash,comprising an anaextracting the excess heat from spirit va our.

2. In a distilling apparatus of the ofey type fory alcoholic wash,comprising an analyzer in communication with a source of steam, arectifier in communication with said anaylzer and having a number ofcompartments, cooling means Within the rectifier and communicating meansbetween the lowermost of said compartments and upper part of saidanalyzer.

3. In a distilling apparatus of the Coifey type for alcoholic Wash, ananalyzer in communication With a source of steam, a rectifier having anumber of compartments above and below an outlet spirit pipe, thelowermost of said compartments being in communication with the upperpart of said analyzer, means for heating said alcoholic Wash so thatless steam Will be required to vaporize the alcohol vapours, saidheating means comprising a chamber through which the heating mediumpasses and said chamber connecting one of the lower compartments of therectifier with the upper portion of the analyzer by means of pipes.

JAMES MODOUGALL.

